The holidays bring a sense of joy and opportunity to reconnect with your dear ones; however, they can bring you stress from additional tasks such as buying gifts and financial worries. Life can become really hectic at this time of year, making you feel hard-pressed for time in getting things done.

It’s natural to think of multitasking to get things done from an ever-increasing to-do list; but, do you envision yourself getting worked up, or simply not getting anything done as you’re completing a bit of everything partway? Fortunately, there are some ways to get out of this conundrum.

Here are six tips for you to multitask effectively and increase your productivity:

1. Take Immediate Action upon Information

As soon as you receive an email, a voicemail, or a text, take immediate action. You may either add that information to your to-do list or take action immediately – without letting it sit there and unaddressed. Even as your email is being sent, you can add other pending tasks to your calendar list.

2. Toggle between Multiple Tasks

Productive multitasking is all about toggling. You can begin one task, leave it for a moment, take on another task, complete a portion and then go back to the first one. This is far more effective than doing two things at the same time – like composing an email while attending to a phone call. Toggling between tasks lets you make best use of the available time in completing multiple tasks.

3. Follow Through

Toggling between tasks leaves them unfinished temporarily. Therefore, following up on them is important, as your ultimate goal is to be productive. For the latter to happen, you need to finish what you’ve started. There could be instances when you can finish only one task in the allotted time; however, efficient time management will ensure that the finished task is also the most important one. Also, since the remaining tasks have already been started, it opens up a possibility to complete them in the future.

4. Prioritize Well

Work out your priority list in terms of tasks to be completed because this will help you complete your most important tasks, while the less important ones would at least be partly done and waiting to be completed, rather than being ignored. For the partly done tasks, you can work out the priority list for the next day.

5. Get Rid of the Procrastinating Habit

To multitask productively, make it a habit to do the tasks that you don’t really like doing first – the rationale being that the unwanted task will keep nagging your mind, which would negatively affect your productivity.

6. Take Help from Others

Multitasking can sometimes mean asking others to do some of your tasks. Even if the task is a specialized one, which only you can do, you can seek someone else’s help in some form of preparation for that task.

You don’t need to be afraid of multitasking. You can do it very effectively with the above mentioned tips.

Mahesh is the spokesperson of the Transcription Certification Institute, an Ellensburg, WA based company that provides comprehensive online general transcription training certification courses. This transcription certification course facilitates careers in transcription because it provides a guaranteed internship with a major transcription company upon certification.